I like Legolas and his lady, but I am sorely disappointed by the Mirkwood guard. Those helmets... yikes. The Mirkwood Rangers are also a little... Glade-Guard-like haha. The miniatures don't disappoint me. They're actually quite well done.

It's the WETA designs that make me sad. Also, maybe I'm just Tolkien rusty, but lady Mirkwood rangers? Is that a Peter Jackson thing? I don't remember lady elf warriors being a thing. I just never saw Tolkien lady elves running around killing things....

I think they actually look pretty awesome. Though I guess the rumors that legolas would be plastic and not finecast are shot. Oh well. Still looks pretty good. And I'm glad the book is just an expansion book instead of another hard cover. I should probably have seen that coming.

I guess its a matter of age and perspective, with the exception of Tauriel I find these to be some of the worst LotR miniatures to date.The Legolas sculpt is a very similar pose to the very original Legolas sculpt from the original "heroes of the west" box I am not sure what is going with the face on that miniature the but the sculpting is out of character, paint a beard on it and he's a chubby dwarf.

Like Josh says, I dont blame GW as much here as the poor design of many of the Hobbit Miniatures are a result of the current WETA design aestetic which I believe went off the rails, when the Hobbit was reimagined as Guillermo Del Toro's vision instead of sticking with the proven success of the original P. Jackson vision.

From a GW perspective I do think it looks like junior people are being assigned sculpting and painting jobs on these figures because they dont look to be anywhere the quality of the old sculpts of certainly the "heavy metal" studio paint jobs of the past. At the current prices unless your collecting them purely on the "I love the movie basis" (which I know a lot are) I just don't see it when better LotR figs are being released by other manufactures, at often much better prices..

$40 for 10 figures on foot? I guess the Elven Knights look pretty cheap now in comparison. At this rate, you'll get a blister with 5 figs for $60. On the plus side, it will have 115 components for those 5 guys so really, a great bargain with all those extra bitz GW gives you.

I'm really struggling with this release. I want to buy some things to help and promote the game. If we aren't buying them, then who will? But I'm running out of opportunities to use any of these new toys and the cost of building an army is getting out of hand now.

I personally like all of them... The Palace Guards and Beorn are probably my least favorites but I am sure those are just Weta Designs.

BrentS wrote:I'm really struggling with this release. I want to buy some things to help and promote the game. If we aren't buying them, then who will? But I'm running out of opportunities to use any of these new toys and the cost of building an army is getting out of hand now.

I personally like all of them... The Palace Guards and Beorn are probably my least favorites but I am sure those are just Weta Designs.

I've never been one to jump on the GW is evil badwagon with regards to prices. My feeling has always been, if the price is REALLY to high I just won't buy. Over the years, their stuff has always been expensive but I could always justify it because I liked the models, games, etc. That has now changed with LotR and the Hobbit. $40 for 10 figures? That is really beyond my ability to take. It doesn't help them that I don't like the models much and have no desire to start a Hobbit movie army.

My personal take is that, yes, not buying the new stuff could hurt the game's longevity but honestly, I think we care more about that then they do. When they price the starter box higher than the 40k starter box and you get less usable stuff and far less exciting stuff than what you find in the 40k Dark Vengence box it sure doesn't look like they are trying to hard to recruit players to the game. I know I don't understand IP arrangements, the money involved and the cost that adds to the Hobbit line but I don't want to hear that it just costs them more and that is why. That is BS. If they wanted to rope people into the game they would find a way and the extra cost of the IP wouldn't be an issue they couldn't overcome.

At any rate, when we were supporting the game years ago what did they do? Nothing. So I don't think you should feel bad not buying stuff. If the game goes away it's not like the small group of players we have now can't continue to play it. We all have armies and unpainted stuff. In a way, it will be like historical games. I know tons of historical gamers who are more than happy to play out of print rulesets. Yeah no tournaments but really, would that be the end of the world?

Bottom line, if you are excited about models, a new army, etc and feel it will make YOU happy to buy stuff, then I say do it. If you're feeling obligated to buy stuff you don't really feel all that fired up about, I say pass. Sadly, I don't think anything the 30 (?) of us who play the game here in the US are going to be able to do much anyway.

Funny, those are the only things I liked as well. I don't think it's a problem to purchase the new stuff, only if, like in your case, the figures appeal to you as a collector or for a potential project.

I'll probably pick up the same models as Brent. Not that I need any more elves.

So when is the first barrel racing game?

The first thought I had was dwarves racing down raging rivers in rickety barrels after a few too many drinks at the pub. So strange as it may seem I may buy the barrel riders as well. The Mirkwood spiders are expensive, but if they are 50mm monsters and their stats are decent, why wouldn't I? The rest isn't so exciting. Beorn looks like a psychotic homeless person.

I would like to put together a Feral Warg rider force, but the cost for that is over $500. I'm not going to spend that much money on a bunch of plastic toys, I'm might do it piecemeal.